New Uses For Old Objects

WAIT!  Don't get rid of that!  I can USE that!  I can't tell you the number of times I have uttered that sentence, much to the chagrin of my ever patient and indulgent husband.  He used to ask, "For what?"  Not so much anymore.  

Not after I turned an empty gallon pickle jar into...  

a pretty cool looking lamp for the kitchen.  What's it filled with, you ask?  Dried peas of course!  I bought all of the dried peas Kroger had on their shelf.  As it turned out I bought too many.  That's ok, they didn't go to waste.  Hey, did you know that dried green peas turn to white if they are illuminated day after day by a light bulb?  Yep!  They most certainly do!  (See, you DO learn something NEW every day!)


One day while we were shopping around a quaint little antique store I came across the most unusual bucket type thing hanging on a wall.   It was an elevator bucket from a corn crib I quickly learned.  Home with us it came.  It's days of holding corn are long over.  Now it holds potatoes & onions on our pantry wall.

I love my little elevator bucket.

When I have an idea in my head it consumes me.  I needed two candle sconces for my bathroom wall to hang on either side of my mirror.  Yes, I said needed.  It was a need, not a want.  My poor mirror looked lonely hanging on that wall by itself.  I looked and I looked and I looked some more for exactly what I wanted to look at on that wall for the rest of my life.  (Maybe that's a slight exaggeration.)  I had just about given up when a friend suggested that the electric sconce I had recently taken down in the pantry would work.  I grabbed that sconce, took the shade off, yanked those electrical wires out of it, took my little flowered hammer that hides six little nesting screwdrivers in the handle, and up it went on the wall.  I topped it with a battery operated candle and sure enough!  It was EXACTLY what I was looking for the last three weeks.  I only had one but my local Ace Is The Place guy was able to order me one to match.  Now there is a matched set hanging proudly on the wall.  

Excuse the crooked picture but I really didn't want to stand in the bathtub to take a better one.   I suppose I could  also have superimposed something over that mirror so you can't see my shower curtain hanging open like that, but who has the time?  

My goofiest project to date occurred just a few short weeks ago.  I had a half hour to spare with nothing to do.  Well, I had stuff I could be doing, but I wanted to do something fun.  I grabbed an old pair of jeans that had seen better days, a pair of scissors, some fabric I had bought to make curtains but never did make the curtains, and my sewing machine.  I told my husband, "Watch what I make!"  20 minutes later I had made...

an Apron out of blue jeans!  Hahahahaha!  I wore that thing ALL DAY LONG.  My youngest son was horrified even though I didn't go out in public in it.  My daughter said I was weird.  She doesn't know yet that she will be sporting one when it comes time to make Christmas cookies in a few months!  Fun times.  

Last but not least, I still had the issue of those leftover bags of peas.  I used one bag for pea soup which led to disastrous results.  Keeping with my repurpose it way of doing things, I grabbed an empty vase that the most beautiful Valentine's Day flowers had arrived in, filled the vase up with dried peas, and plopped yet another battery operated candle on top.  Voila!  (<< That's the correct word, I googled it).

The best things about these projects were they were cheap, easy, quick, and I saved something from the landfill.  

The next time you are bored, I hope that you remember that a blue jean apron or a pickle jar lamp is within your reach.  (If you DO make a rhinestone blue jean apron, send me a picture so I'm not the only one sporting mine for the world to see.) Pin It